


home enough for me

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: adrien augreste 2020 [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien AUGreste 2020, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Identity Reveal, Kwami & Miraculous Lore, POV Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Parent Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Plagg Cares (Miraculous Ladybug), Plagg Is So Done (Miraculous Ladybug), Podfic Welcome, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Protective Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Rated for cursing, Runaway Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, its getting out of hand, kwami angst, little kitty on the roof, plagg's been hurt in the past, these prompts have started sprouting kwami lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25761688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: "Kid, are you serious.""Of course I'm serious," Adrien replies absently, reaching without looking to grab for the bag he must have left here earlier.  Plagg has no idea when he'd done that.  Plagg probably should know when he'd done that, but hell, raising the kid isn't his responsibility.Isn't supposed to be his responsibility.  Is anyway, but it sure isn't supposed to be.No one should have given Plagg a kid.   Plagg's barely ever been able to keep his adult chosen from doing stupid, stupid things.  No one should have given him a kid.No one had ever told Fu not to.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Plagg
Series: adrien augreste 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860751
Comments: 61
Kudos: 584





	home enough for me

**Author's Note:**

> for the 'little kitty on the roof' prompt and look we all knew where i was going with that

"Kid, _are you serious."_

"Of course I'm serious," Adrien replies absently, reaching without looking to grab for the bag he must have left here earlier. Plagg has no idea when he'd done that. Plagg probably _should_ know when he'd done that, but hell, raising the kid isn't his responsibility. 

Isn't supposed to be his responsibility. Is anyway, but it sure isn't supposed to be. 

No one should have given Plagg a _kid._ Plagg's barely ever been able to keep his adult chosen from doing stupid, stupid things. No one should have given him a kid. 

No one had ever told Fu _not_ to. 

"This is like the third night in a row," Plagg tries, but he can hear how damn half-hearted he sounds. He doesn't actually wanna make the kid go home and the kid knows it. "C'mon, at least the other places have got beds." 

"I can't keep taking Rose's bed." Adrien still sounds just as distracted, turning now to actually look into his bag like he can't find what it is he's looking for. Plagg has some guesses. "And I've got technically a chaise lounge at Marinette's." 

Plagg just manages to hide his flash of relief. This is the first time Adrien's referred to the chaise lounge as his, despite Marinette's increasingly desperate attempts to convince him. She's on the verge of letting her identity slip and Plagg thinks she might have stopped caring, so long as her partner finally stays safe with her. 

Plagg hasn't always liked the Ladybugs that have been Tikki's chosen. He used to, back when it was them that did all the choosing, but then there'd been however many years of monks and jewellery and Plagg is never, ever gonna admit to being grateful that Fu had gone and run off with their Miracle Box. 

The monks had never listened to the kwami's input about their chosen. The monks always thought that they knew better than the kwami, which still makes Plagg's fur bristle when he thinks of it. 

Fu either hadn't ever learned that he wasn't supposed to ask the kwami their opinions first, or hadn't cared. He'd used their suggested tests and everything. 

'Course, he'd also tried to take them _back from their kids_ later, which, _no_ , but now the Box is with Tikki's kid anyway. Plagg can't see her agreeing to give it up anytime soon. She'd fight an entire temple full of monks before giving up any of the kwami and Plagg refuses to think about how massive a relief that is. 

"You know that ain't a bed Rose ever uses, right, kid?" Plagg says, instead of any of the things he's thinking. "She shares Juleka's room." 

Adrien pauses in the middle of fishing around in his bag. "Because I'm in hers?" 

He sounds so genuinely confused. 

Plagg shakes his head, despite knowing that Adrien can't see him at this angle, and thumps tiny paws against his chosen's head right about where his transformed ears would be. He doesn't put any effort into it but Adrien flinches and then Plagg flinches in return, carefully withdrawing after waiting just long enough that Adrien won't feel guilty about it. Plagg hadn't put any strength behind it, hadn't meant to scare or startle his kid, but Adrien's a lot more skittish than he ever shows to most people.

And Plagg's right where his ears would be. Adrien's got more sensitive ears as Chat than any of Plagg's chosen have in a long, long time. 

Plagg thinks partly that sensitivity even while human is a sign that the kid's more attuned to Plagg's magic than most people ever are, but it's also gotta be partly from the way the kid also flinches at raised voices and just- just general signs of anger. 

Another benefit to staying over at Marinette's: on the rare occasion that Adrien ever bothers to detransform, usually just long enough to take advantage of the open offer to use their shower, Plagg can talk to Tikki. 

Plagg can keep explaining to Tikki how stupid it is to keep up the identity rule. 

Tikki's known him for very literally forever. She hasn't given in yet, but she's wavered a lot in the face of Plagg's stubborn determination. She's wavered more since she's seen all the things Plagg's pointed out to her- the flinching, the wariness, the increasingly unnerving reluctance to voice disagreement. The kid'll disagree with people, sure, but only when he feels safe- and he doesn't often feel safe. 

The _flinching_. 

Tikki had tried to argue that point at first, because both their kids are battle-weary and -wary all the time, but all Plagg had to do was tell her to watch Adrien for a few days and whatever she'd seen had convinced her more thoroughly than Plagg ever could have. 

Plagg wants to be mad at her over that one, but he hadn't actually noticed the flinching himself at first _and_ he'd initially chalked it up to battle, too. 

But he's seen the way it increases around Anarka and around Marinette's parents and around-

Yeah, it's not from battle. 

He doesn't think the kid even _knows_ how badly he mistrusts adults, and Plagg and Marinette both have had to teach him and then remember to remind him that he's allowed to set boundaries. 

(And the terrible expression that had swept over Marinette when she'd realised how lost her partner actually is on the topic of boundaries had left Plagg both feeling something similar and feeling an angry satisfaction of his own, because she hadn't thought his kid's feelings were honest those first few months and then she'd _turned him down,_ and Adrien is such a _great_ kid _,_ how could she have turned him down).

(Plagg does like Marinette. He's just maybe still holding onto some old grudges).

"C'mon, you _know_ they'd be happy to see you," Plagg tries, but without much hope. This is the third night already that Adrien's taken them to some out of the way rooftop. He almost always sneaks out after Nathalie's last room check to find someplace less stifling anyway (the kid's dad never checks, and the Gorilla's checks have gotten to be suspiciously cursory), but Plagg had thought he'd at least got the kid going to his friends by now. 

It's not even like he has to worry about transforming or not. The Liberty's just as happy to hide Adrien (or Kagami, or sometimes both) as they are Chat Noir; _whatever_ happened to that little family at some point, and Plagg knows damn well that _something_ did, Anarka had taken one look at Adrien when he wasn't looking back and decided he was one of hers. 

Plagg gets the impression that Anarka's decided on responsibility to more than a few of her kid's friends already. Rose is so deeply entrenched in the Liberty crew that it had taken Plagg a decent amount of time to realise she's probably _not_ meant to be living there, and it had taken Adrien barely less time than it had him.

"I can't keep imposing on everyone, Plagg." Adrien keeps his voice soft as he rolls out the sleeping bag Juleka had _finally_ gotten him to accept sometime last week- because Juleka _does_ have Rose, because Juleka and Luka and Anarka are definitely picking up on hints Adrien likely has no idea he's dropping at all. 

Plagg will take it if he can at least get his kid to go roll his new sleeping bag out on his partner's roof. At least the balcony has decent cover. 

At least the balcony has his partner. 

(And Plagg's, too).

This is just some random rooftop, with barely an overhang between this roof and the next to keep them out of sight. It doesn't do half as much to keep rain off of them, and Plagg's already learned the hard way that rain's not enough to keep Adrien in his room at night. _Snow_ isn't enough to keep Adrien in his room at night. 

"You could impose anyway, though," Plagg points out, still without much hope. "You absolutely could. Kid, I'm pretty sure they all _like_ it when you impose, so you know, impose away." 

Adrien ignores him, climbing into the sleeping bag and then inching over to press his back to the rough wall. He only relaxes with the brick at his back and Plagg aches with a dozen memories of a dozen different kittens who'd had a nearly identical habit. 

Most of them had been older by the time they'd picked it up.

Most of them had had far less suited Ladybugs than Adrien does, and the very few that hadn't had never had to learn the habit at all.

Plagg's fiercely glad that Fu had never been with the monks long enough to learn that they _didn't_ ask for the kwami's input on how to find their chosen. Fu had been with them long enough to know that they didn't let the kwami make the final decision, but not long enough to know that the elders would have been horrified to know that he'd asked his kwami's advice in the first place.

They'd have been a lot more horrified to learn that he'd asked for Plagg's. 

Tikki they might have forgiven. Tikki's a lot better at presenting herself as harmless, though Plagg privately thinks that anyone who professes to revere balance should know better than to ever consider the aspect of creation as _harmless._ Asking for _Plagg's_ advice, though....

They probably would have kicked Fu out.

Wayzz very noticeably does not tell his chosen this. 

And Marinette and Adrien don't just ask their kwami for advice, they frequently rely on it. 

This is the freest Plagg's felt in centuries. This is the freest Plagg's _been_ in centuries. He's not giving Adrien up for anything, and especially not for the kid's own self-sacrificing tendencies. 

And... and the longer Plagg has him, the more he wants to return the favour. The more he wants to return the favour, and the care, and the trust. 

Plagg phases through the sleeping bag and tugs on Adrien's arm, clinging gently when Adrien snorts and makes to roll over. "Adriiiiiien." 

"What, Plagg?" Even trying to sleep, Adrien stills to listen to him. "I swear, if this is about cheese again-" 

Mostly to listen to him. 

"It's gonna rain, Adrien." Plagg deliberately whines the words. Adrien might pretend it doesn't get to him, but he's always been more likely to give in when Plagg starts to whine. "I don't wanna get all wet. Can't we at least go to Marinette's roof? She's got the awning there." Because she'd made an extremely showy point of putting it up the first time she'd found Chat outside, and Plagg very much doubts she's going to take it down without knowing for sure that Chat isn't going to be outside.

"Plagg-" Adrien starts again, exasperated, but he finally groans and sits back up. "Yes, all right, if it means you'll actually let me sleep then I'll go there. Happy?" 

Plagg lets out a whoop that he only mildly regrets when it startles his kid back towards his defensible wall. _"Finally."_

Marinette finds them so fast that Plagg's sure she's been checking. 

It's a good thing she's so cautious when she checks, because Adrien isn't transformed. 

(All the current chosen retain a lot of their agility and strength even without their transformations. Plagg's fiercely proud of this, especially since the current chosen are all kids that the kwami actually _want-_ Marinette does tend to choose them on the fly, but she's started making it very clear that if they find themselves disagreeing with her choice she'll listen. Some of the younger kwami have _never_ had that before). 

Adrien probably shouldn't have done as much rooftop scrambling as he had while he was still a civilian but Plagg sure hadn't been about to stop him. Besides, Adrien has had that climbing wall longer than Plagg's had him. He's gotten better at climbing with Plagg's help, but it's not like he was ever bad at it.

Marinette does get as far as heaving herself out of her skylight, sharp eyes scanning the balcony for surprise guests, but the moment she sees Plagg her eyes drop back to her room.

"Hey, Chat," she says softly, leaning against the half-open skylight and pointedly not looking. "It's going to storm tonight. You should come inside." 

Adrien takes a moment too long to answer, and for once Plagg's pretty sure the kid knows it. "Thanks, but I'll be fine out here." 

"Chat," Marinette says, half a sigh. "I'm telling you, you can come inside. You're going to get rained on out here. Why _shouldn't_ you come inside?" 

"My suit's waterproof. Stormproof, even," Adrien tries and fails to bluff, and it's very gratifying when Marinette lets out a snort identical to Plagg's own. 

"Nice try, alleycat," Marinette says dryly, turning to the window and deliberately putting her back to him. She doesn't say that she knows he's not transformed. She doesn't say that he needs to be to come in. She only says, "The window's always open for you." 

Very softly, Adrien says, "Thanks." 

Plagg's not surprised when Adrien doesn't take the offer. 

But he's also not surprised when Marinette slips back inside only to return with an armful of blankets and a couple of very fluffy pillows. 

She continues to carefully telegraph just how much she's _not_ looking at Adrien, but she also draws a bandanna out of her pocket and holds it up in a wordless offer. When it still takes Adrien a moment too long to catch on, she raises it to the level of her eyes and mimes tying a blindfold in place. 

_"Oh,"_ Adrien says, startled into the realisation. Plagg glances up in time to see the way his kid's whole face brightens at the offer, then falls again, probably because he feels guilty that Marinette feels the need to make it. 

Which is _stupid,_ and Plagg lets him know it by way of barely-there claws pricking through his shirt. Inwardly, Plagg frowns as Adrien hisses at him under his breath. 

He forgets sometimes that Adrien's clothes are thinner than they look. That they're a whole lot thinner than they should be for a kid who's been spending his nights sleeping on rooftops. 

Adrien swallows, but he cups one hand very lightly over Plagg for long enough to show that he's heard. "You don't need to do that. Besides, now _you're_ going to get rained on."

Marinette shrugs, almost turning and then swiftly stopping. She winces, barely visible from this angle, and then ties the makeshift blindfold loosely in place. "We can get rained on together, cat. Besides." Her voice lilts, turning teasing. "It's cats that don't like to get wet. _I_ don't mind at all." 

Adrien makes a soft noise, but whether it's in assent or protest Plagg honestly can't tell. 

_"Kid,"_ Plagg tries, forcing every ounce of his frustration out of his tone. It's not an easy thing to do. "Either take it or _get inside_ , come on. I'm not a huge fan of rain, and the awning's better but it's still only gonna keep some of it off!" He tries not to hold his breath. If he says too little, Marinette's not going to pick up on it. If he says too much, he risks losing Adrien's trust, and that's worth more to him than he's willing to acknowledge even to himself. 

She catches it. Marinette, thankfully, catches the implications behind Plagg's whining. 

He can't see most of her face, the bandanna hides more of it than her mask does (and if that's what tips them over into a reveal, _finally,_ then Plagg's never going to let them forget it), but he can guess at the way Marinette's eyes narrow. He's seen it before. "Chat? Where were you sleeping before this?" 

Adrien's shoulders tense. Plagg has a moment's worry that he won't admit to, because Marinette can't see the way Adrien reacts, but then he thinks she's smart enough to notice anyway. At least once Adrien starts stuttering through an explanation. "I-I slept here just a couple nights ago." 

"That was four days ago, Chat." Marinette's clearly not in the mood to pretend to believe him anymore, either. Inwardly, Plagg cheers. 

"I've slept a couple other places. Uh, you're friends with Luka, right? His family lets me sleep on their deck, sometimes." Adrien finishes laying out the bedding Marinette's brought up, glancing between it and his own sleeping bag indecisively. He doesn't really need the sleeping bag now, but it was a gift, and Plagg knows his kid would feel bad not using a gift. 

It's the kind of gift that's likely to give Marinette more questions, but Adrien doesn't appear to realise that his last couple comments were threaded with a sort of unbelievable amount of red flags, so that's probably a moot point. 

"Chat," Marinette says, and her voice has gone soft the way it does when they meet up after a rough battle. These days, she makes sure they retransform and debrief any time Chat's been controlled, and 'debrief' generally consists of hanging out together on a secluded rooftop for a few hours. Sometimes she brings a deck of cards and teaches Chat how to play. Once she'd brought Jenga only to crack up laughing when Adrien had given in to Plagg and swiped the whole tower over. 

It's one of the reasons Plagg likes her so much. 

Adrien hasn't answered her. 

Maybe he doesn't need to. 

"When's the last time you slept at home, kitty?" 

Plagg finally feels like he's starting to succeed when Adrien, after only a few minutes, quietly repeats, "I slept here a couple nights ago." 

"Oh, Chat," Marinette says again, still soft and sad, and with the safety of the blindfold she wraps a blanket around them both. 

Plagg hangs back, looking at her and knowing that she'll sense it or Tikki will, and waits for it.

Marinette hugs his kid, drawing him closer to her and further under the cover of the awning. "You can stay here whenever you want, Chat Noir." She turns, and Plagg senses more than sees Tikki flickering at the skylight. "You can stay here every night if you want."

Adrien pulls away. "I can't."

Marinette tilts her head and Tikki, impatient and unimpressed and clearly, transparently concerned, flies to her even faster than Plagg expects.

At the sight of her Adrien inhales so fast he chokes and can't get an answer out.

Plagg can, but Plagg isn't gonna answer _for_ the kid, no matter how much he'd like to. No matter the way Tikki's _looking_ at him right now. 

No one's left Tikki feeling like she might be her kid's whole family. Plagg doesn't have to listen to her.

"I don't need to see you," Marinette says, quickly, and Plagg can't tell if she's misidentifying the problem or cutting off the _next_ potential problem. "You don't have to tell me. But I still want you to stay."

"Your parents," is the first thing Adrien manages, because _of course_ it is.

Marinette shrugs, and it would be funny if Plagg didn't know that his kid's scared of the idea and Tikki's kid isn't. 

Except that Tikki's kid is also a fantastic kid who _knows_ that, so she doesn't try to tell Adrien that her parents aren't like his dad. Instead she earns even more of Plagg's severely limited stores of affection by answering with, "We'll figure that out when we get to it. Easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission, right?"

She's just tense enough that Plagg can tell she knows that phrasing could backfire. 

But it doesn't. 

"... Can I come in, then? I'd. I'd like to stay," Adrien says, very, very quietly, and Plagg's cheer this time isn't an inward one.

**Author's Note:**

> plagg is sorta channelling teenage-mes Oh My God How Did Anyone Let Me Become A Camp Counsellor, How Did Any Of You Think This Was A Good Idea experience 
> 
> (i snuck out of my groups cabin (counsellor cabin, i wasnt like, ditching kids in there) in the middle of the night and met up with two other counsellors in the middle of the woods, pretty sure we woulda gotten in trouble for 'borrowing' that inner tube to go tubing if we hadn't passed a teacher out there doing the SAME THING, we all just stared at each other for a minute and then quietly went our separate ways.
> 
> in my defence like all the other counsellors in my cabin were super obviously calling their boyfriends? i tried calling my brother just to call SOMEONE but he called me an idiot and hung up so i snuck out).
> 
> titles from now i have everything from fiddler on the roof!


End file.
